The present invention relates generally to a hot-pressing furnace or kiln and more particularly to such a furnace wherein a plurality of die sets containing material to be hot pressed are heated, hot pressed and cooled in a sequential and continuous manner.
Hot pressing ceramic and refractory materials has proven to be a viable process for forming refractory and ceramic articles of desired configurations. In conventional hot-pressing operations, a die body loaded with ceramic or refractory material is placed in a hot-pressing furnace, heated to the desired pressing temperature, pressed, and then removed for cooling. This operation requires a considerable period of time for the pressing of one article. Often times the process is speeded up by preheating the loaded die bodies in a separate furnace and then moving the die body to a hot-pressing furnace for the pressing operation. In either event, a considerable amount of time is required for the pressing of articles which would be considerably expensive and time consuming when a large number of articles are to be hot pressed.